Browsing All Posts published on »January, 2018«

Trade union pickets — for the first time in a 134-year history — confronted the fashionistas and glitterati who turned up for one of the premier events in the South African horse racing calendar, the Cape — now Sun — Met in Cape Town. But, so far, there has been little response to this action at the annual his mink and manure fiesta.

Whatever democratic power ordinary people have should always be defended — and fiercely. So SA ctizens, importantly organised labour, should prepare to do battle with a government that proposes abolishing elected school governing bodies that have admittedly failed, but largely because government has failed them.

A hope for 2018: that we will not again see the reinvention of old political and economic wheels that drag us deeper into the recessionary mire and instead utilise existing opportunity and abiity to soar above the mess we are in.

Even a cursory examination reveals the level of farce that is played out in South Afrca's annual matriculation announcements. There is, for example, no reference to the massive student dropout rate or to the fact that it now requires a bare 30% to pass. There is also a history to this circus that goes back to the days of exile and apartheid.

Those in positions of power continue to bury their heads in the sand, constantly prophesying that the economic crisis is heading towarda recovery. But each of these predictions is as hollow as the next. If the system is to recover, it will only be at the most horrendous cost in terms of human suffering as well as in massive environmental despoilation. However, there is hope.